Green Goblin II
Who is the second Green Goblin? Harry is the son of industrialist Norman Osborn and his wife Emily. Unfortunately, the circumstances of Harry's birth weakened Emily, and she died after several years of illness. Heartbroken, Norman becomes a cold and unloving father; he either contemptuously dismisses Harry, or lashes out at him in fury. Harry spends much of his life trying desperately to earn his father's approval. Upon graduating from high school, he enrolls in Empire State University. Among the wealthiest students in the school, Harry soon becomes one of the most popular as well, despite his aloof manner. He has a clique of rich, popular students around him; one of these is the lovely Gwen Stacy. Gwen is intrigued by a new student: bookish, studious and painfully-shy Peter Parker. Harry takes a dislike to Parker; he resents the attention Gwen gives to Peter, and he assumes that Peter's standoffishness is snobbery. After confronting Parker, Harry realizes that Peter is merely shy, and is also worried about his ailing aunt, May. Despite this rocky start, Harry and Peter became friends, eventually sharing an apartment. Harry does not realize that Peter is the superhero Spider-Man. Harry's father became the Green Goblin in an accident while attempting to create a super-serum. Spider-Man and the Goblin had already battled twice when Peter and Harry become friends. In a later battle, the Goblin discovers Spider-Man's identity and captures him, revealing his own identity in the process. Horrified that his greatest enemy is also his best friend's father, Peter's loyalties are torn. When the Goblin falls onto an electric transformer during the resulting fight, the shock removes all memory of being the Green Goblin from Norman Osborn's mind. Spider-Man removes the Goblin's costume and equipment, hoping it will be the end of the Goblin menace, that Mr. Osborn will return to normal, and that no one else, especially Harry, will ever need to know the truth. However, Norman's Green Goblin persona resurfaces from time to time; he then battles with Spider-Man, only to become Norman Osborn again when the fight is over. These are difficult times for Harry, as his father's periodic episodes are unexplainable. He had experimented with drugs in his teens, but he escalates his usage, as well as trying ever-harder substances. This affects his mental stability and his relationships with his friends. Spider-Man uses this to his advantage during one battle with the Green Goblin; he is able to stop the fight by showing Norman his son's emaciated condition, brought on by an accidental drug overdose. The sight shocks Norman so much that it brings him back to sanity for what is to be the last time. It wasn't long after, though, that stress caused Norman to become the Green Goblin again. Harry's life had fallen apart. His relationship with Peter's friend Mary Jane Watson had come to an end when she dumped him, fed up with his self-destructive lifestyle. A disconsolate Harry turned to drugs and suffered an LSD overdose. He survived, but this tragedy, compounded by imminent bankrupcy, drove the Green Goblin over the edge. He kidnapped Gwen as bait for Spider-Man, and then threw her off the bridge. When Peter pulled her back up with his webbing, she was dead. A vicious battle between Spider-Man and the Green Goblin ensued, with Peter barely able to control himself from killing the villain. The Goblin then directed his glider to impale Spider-Man, but the wall-crawler jumped out of the way, and the Goblin was impaled through the chest himself, and seemingly killed. Peter was wracked with guilt and sorrow, but took comfort in the fact that the Green Goblin was finally gone. Revenge However, Harry had secretly witnessed the battle. Wanting to protect his father's identity, he stripped Norman's body of the Green Goblin costume and hid it. Blaming Spider-Man for his father's death. Harry swore vengeance. Having inherited his father's company, Harry managed to get the business back in shape as he planned his revenge. One day, to his shock, he found a Spider-Man costume in Peter's apartment, and realized that his best friend was the man he blamed for his father's death. Using his father's old equipment, Harry confronted Peter as the new Green Goblin. Not wanting to hurt Harry, Peter avoided fighting his old friend. Eventually, Harry was knocked unconscious and taken into police custody. There, he raved that he was the true Green Goblin and Peter Parker was Spider-Man, but was dismissed as a lunatic. He was put in the care of criminal psychologist Dr. Bart Hamilton, who extracted the secrets of the Green Goblin from Harry through hypnosis, and buried the knowledge deep with Harry's mind. However, this was not altruistic on Hamilton's part - he then raided one of Harry's hideouts and became the third Green Goblin, hoping to become the new boss of the underworld. However, his power was no match for his enthusiasm - he never even bothered to use the strength-enhancing formulas on himself, seemingly believing that just being the Green Goblin would enable him to defeat Spider-Man, and, despite an elaborate plot to kill Silvermane, the power-mad psychologist was killed by a bomb he had planted for Spider-Man. Although he suffered a brief setback during the confrontation with Hamilton, Harry was released and considered cured, sustaining a concussion that made him forget his knowledge of Spider-Man's identity, and he and Peter rekindled their friendship. For a while, Harry's life seemed back on track; his company began turning profits once more, and he developed a romance with Liz Allan, whom he met at the wedding of Betty Brant and Ned Leeds. Not long after, the two were married, and eventually they had a son, whom Harry named Normie in memory of the boy's grandfather. Harry also gave his blessing to the marriage of Peter and Mary Jane. However, Harry started regaining his memories when he was being blackmailed by the original Hobgoblin, who mailed him a package which contained evidence that his father was the original Green Goblin. When the Hobgoblin learned he had raided all of Norman's hideouts, he left Harry alone, knowing he had nothing more to offer him. Later, Harry was forced to act as the Green Goblin a few times, once to defeat Jason Macendale, the second Hobgoblin. Macendale sought the Goblin formula that gave the Green Goblin superhuman strength; Harry was able to defeat Macendale by doubling back during an aerial chase and emptying his entire supply of pumpkin bombs onto the Hobgoblin. Harry even wondered if he could use the Goblin persona for a career as a superhero, but Peter convinced him that the Goblin had too much baggage for such a role, and Harry buried the Goblin menace within his mind once more, and focused on his business and family Category:Villains